Just sent my Nintendo Switch in for repair

[dsullo]

This is more of a rant than anything else. I was one of the lucky ones who bought my Switch on launch. I play it along with my 15 year old daughter. She completed Breath of the Wild and was on a second play through. The system is usually played outside the dock and has never been mistreated (dropped or anything). It is used a few hours a week.

 

This weekend I went to play BOTW and the system would not get past the Switch Logo screen. We tried rebooting , holding the power button for 30 seconds. We tried docked and undocked. After a full day of trying I called Nintendo Support. Thankfully it is under warranty. they provided a shipping label and instructions. It is off to the repair center.

 

My rant is that Nintendo's support really was unable to help in anyway.

They do not have any tools or boot up options to get to a config screen.

The conversation took 5 minutes and the solution is to send it in.

 

I feel like the system is really not played that much and to have a complete failure seems like a major issue. I am glad that it will be repaired but I am also concerned about failure outside the warranty period. Anyway that is my little rant. Thanks for listening.

 

Dustin

[spacecadet]

I had to send mine in for repair as well and it came back only partially repaired and also scratched up. Mine was not a software issue but the dreaded "screen lift" problem that seems fairly common. They glued down the top of my screen but the side is still raised above the bezel.

 

Every time I've called them, they've been extremely friendly but I agree that their goal seems to be to get people off the phone as quickly as possible rather than providing the best actual service. They have a script that they read from and if your problem doesn't fit into one of their little flowcharts, it's off to repair. I feel like since the Switch launch they've probably also had quite a number of support calls so they're a little overwhelmed. I can't say this definitively based only on my own machine, but given the relatively small number of machines out there and the number of posts I see various places about getting machines repaired, I feel like Nintendo might be rushing these things out as fast as they're able to and letting some marginal units go out in the process.

 

If nothing else, it's not like it's easy to just go return and exchange a defective unit like with most products. That's what I would have done with mine if I could have, but instead I had to call support and send it in for repair.

 

You've had yours for a while so that might just be an unfortunate issue that you had, but if their support is overwhelmed by constant call queues from people like me with marginal new Switches, that might be one reason why they don't have the time to deal with a simple software issue.

Edited August 21, 2017 by spacecadet

[Tanooki]

I can't speak for the Switch, but when the one time I had a console go, their fault for frying it, they were friendly, it was not scripted and it was repaired off warranty at no charge because it was one of their major firmware updates to the WiiU that did it in. It choked for whatever reason on restart after flashing it and it bricked the thing partially (no access to system menu +1 I forget which.) I also had a DSlite go bad where the bottom 1/4" of the screen was shifted like a 1/2" to the right making it off center and dead in the bottom left in warranty. Both cases it was friendly, some banter, a good conversation considering the usual from a phone CSR thing and it was done.

 

Switch is going nuts in sales like Wii but worse supposedly and they're having trouble keeping parts in stock or for new units due to that NAND shortage with them and Apple fighting over the memory so perhaps they're frazzled and just want to get stuff taken care of and out the door.

[dsullo]

thanks guys for letting me vent. I did send in my wavebird back in the day for repair and it was fixed on one try. So I guess I should give them the benefit of the doubt. I will update you guys when I get it back.

[dsullo]

received my switch back from the company in NY. The paperwork included with the returned system shows a part was replaced. Not sure what part because the description is vague.

 

I did not lose any data and received back my original system. The whole process took about 8 days. I guess I really can only say it was positive. Good Job Nintendo

[Tanooki]

What did it say exactly even if it was kind of vague? I'm kind of curious if it could be figured out. Perhaps it had some bad storage for the firmware or bad memory that needed to be popped out. 8 days is quite fast given that's total turn around. Right in time for a 3 day weekend.

[Jinks]

Thanks for the info. Def gonna pass on this lemon.

[Keatah]

My rant is that Nintendo's support really was unable to help in anyway.

They do not have any tools or boot up options to get to a config screen.

The conversation took 5 minutes and the solution is to send it in.

 

Do you think a call center flunky is going to be able to talk the even-more-stupid general public through configurations and boot options and technical matters? Not that playing with a config screen would fix a hardware problem anyways..

[Keatah]

I had to send mine in for repair as well and it came back only partially repaired and also scratched up. Mine was not a software issue but the dreaded "screen lift" problem that seems fairly common. They glued down the top of my screen but the side is still raised above the bezel.

 

Are you sure you got your exact unit back and not a swap and data/serialnumber transfer to another refurb?

 

 

Every time I've called them, they've been extremely friendly but I agree that their goal seems to be to get people off the phone as quickly as possible rather than providing the best actual service. They have a script that they read from and if your problem doesn't fit into one of their little flowcharts, it's off to repair. I feel like since the Switch launch they've probably also had quite a number of support calls so they're a little overwhelmed. I can't say this definitively based only on my own machine, but given the relatively small number of machines out there and the number of posts I see various places about getting machines repaired, I feel like Nintendo might be rushing these things out as fast as they're able to and letting some marginal units go out in the process.

 

Most companies' goals are to get customers off the phone as fast as possible. Let them hire another 50 call center temps if they're pressed for manpower. Anyone can sit on their ass and read scripts. Don't be apologetic for or rationalize any rush actions they're doing.